Obama's Attorney General Announces Investigation Into National Security Leaks

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced this afternoon that he has appointed two U.S. Attorneys to investigate possible leaks of classified national security information by Obama administration officials.

The move comes amid growing calls from lawmakers demanding that the Obama administration look into a series of national security-related leaks to the news media, including those related to the President's "secret kill list" and to the Stuxnet computer virus. Some Republicans have suggested that the administration purposefully leaked the information for political gain.

In a statement Friday, Holder said that the two prosecutors — Ronald Machen and Rod Rosenstein — to lead two separate criminal investigations conducted by the FBI into recent instances of possible unauthorized leaks.

The statement says that the two U.S. Attorneys "are fully authorized to prosecute criminal violations discovered as a result of their investigations and matters related to those violations, consult with members of the Intelligence Community and follow all appropriate investigative leads within the Executive and Legislative branches of government."